Catartis

Comments are History :^(

A few of you might have noticed that *THE* Cat & I have been absent from blogging, and much of cyberspace for the last couple of months. The hectic state of holiday preparation, beach runs to escape the hectic holidays previously mentioned and general life and laziness have kept me away. I seem to have temporarily lost my taste for it.

Unfortunately, during that time the tacky comment spammers have not rested. Renames of mt-comments and other assorted measures have not stopped them. The blacklist helps by notifying me of gamblers, ripoff artists and general smut dealers who try to post links here, but quite by chance today, I noticed that I had not received notification on several of the offending posts. I doubt it was an issue with comment notification, more likely an issue of my mass deleting of junk that surfaced over the holidays while I was enjoying a quite, winter beach.

So, effective immediately, all comments are closed and all IP's are banned from posting via a quick fix suggestion from the forums to simply add a blank entry to the IP Banning section.

I do not anticipate reopening them until I finally get off my overly cushy tail and complete the redesign of this site and the move to Expression Engine. My buddies and well wishers know where to find me and you cheap sleaze bags out there can find someone else to pester.

Meeeeeooooowww & Good Riddance to Comment Spammers!
Farron & _^..^_

Is He Sleeping in or Gone?

Hummm, there is *a girl* reporter in PCB this morning. They flew her in from Atlanta yesterday/last night(?).

Is Indiana Weather sleeping in or have they sent him a bit west? The track is ever moving but staying in that general area of the NorthWest Gulf at the moment. Hard to tell much at this point.

Here is a good, easy to load tracking map that seems to be constantly updated right now.

Track seems to keep wobbling. Last night's prediction was a direct hit near Destin. This morning west to Gulf Shores, right this second back closer to Destin again.

There seems to have been a big pow wow meeting at the offices of the people putting on this trip. Sounds like it will be moved to the end of the month. Yah! for us, but that doesn't lessen the fact that people in some part of that area are getting ready to get slammed! My thoughts and prayers are with them.

And I am still watching this like a hawk.

*THE* _^..^_ is not out of the woods on that trip and the vet stay yet. If it's just a bit later, we may be able to stay a day or two longer like we normally do, too. He may have just fixed his furry little wagon. purrrrahahahahaha!

Farron
[and an over confident, sleeping _^..^_ ]

A Smile While Grumbling

Looks like I am not the only one who thinks Jim Cantore's location is *THE* spot to watch. Mr. Storm = Indiana Weather.

kinkyconvolution.com post

Amazing what you might find while mindlessly surfing and sulking. ;^)

Farron

Media Coverage and Ivan the Terrible

I am just waiting for the "I told you so's" from Butzi.

Media likes to get right on top of the worst spots in a storm, right?

Well take a look where The Weather Channel has their ace hurricane chaser/storm magnet, Indiana Weather, and look where the Weather Bug guy has gone.

Right where we are supposed to be this week. Anyone besides me think this is where they are betting the worst hit will occur?

Curses! Curses Foiled Again!

Tony and I are convinced that our *dear* Cat with his Russian name (Tchaikovsky) has been channeling to the spirit of Russia's Czar Ivan the Terrible to keep us from leaving and shipping him off to cat prison for a few days.

He gave me that innocent cat look when I asked him directly. But I'm not buying his story. Lil Rat! He'd better adjust that path in a big hurry!!

Farron
[who is not speaking to the _^..^_ right now!]

Update: As I was getting ready to post this, the local news said that PCB (where we were going) is the best guess at this point of the spot which will take the direct hit. grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hurricane Magnets!!

Oh No!

I have been watching to see where the Weather Channel moved my hurricane hero, Indiana Weather [aka. Jim Cantore]. That guy is a hurricane magnet.

Guess where he is?

Answer Is Here

You don't have to click if you know me... yup, he's in Panama City Beach. I just KNOW *The* Cat sent him there!

Trip is suddenly not looking good, even from my delusionary optimistic point of view. Dern, I should have that blog up and running right now. lol

I still haven't quite given up the ghost, but the one indicator I pretty much swear by just rolled in. [grumble, grumble]

Farron
[and a now smirking _^..^_ ]

Hurricanes and the Best Laid Plans

Well that old Hurricane Ivan is trying to creep westward and rain on my parade. Wonder if this is all part of the cat network plot to try to keep *THE* Cat from having to go to boarding prison next week? I see he is aiming his body so he is breathing toward the west. Any of those other cats he corresponds with doing the same thing?

So far, the PCB weather report on weather.com is still looking good after Wednesday, when we will only be there later in the day since there's a really good chance we will stop for dinner Tuesday night and piddle to somewhere within 100 miles or so from the coast and grab a room for the night in one of those "close to the road" cookie cutter motels. Just somewhere for a snooze and a shower. No need to rush since we will be leaving late in the day.

We have learned the hard way that getting a room at 2:00AM at the beach when your condo isn't booked until the next day is not as easy as it sounds. Not that many of the fun ones have someone at the desk at that hour. That was when I discovered there might be hope for Tony as a runaway bag purrrson yet. When we didn't find a crash pad right away, his response was not to panic, but to say, "Well, there's always Waffle House." Good answer! *grin*

Those roadside things like Ramada, Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, etc. are better bets for all night desk service.

Besides weather.com, I am keeping an eye on the blog at weatherbug.com.

They are the ones with the young storm tracking team I enjoyed following during Charley and Frances for a different sort of viewpoint. It concerned me when I noticed last night that they had moved their destination airport from Ft. Meyers to Tallahassee. Dern, they are planning to hang out in the northwest sector of the state.

Ah well, I have said that *I* am going if the Carrier guys go and the whole deal isn't cancelled. No good old boy is gonna call me a weenie. haha

Besides, if it doesn't *really* hit there and turns out more like TS Hannah was on this same trip two years ago, that is something I find interesting. Stormy days at the beach are actually quite beautiful and wild feeling. As long as you are not truly in harm's way.

We shall see. At least we are very blessed to have a choice in this matter. Those who live in whatever areas might be most affected are not so lucky. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

I am turning *THE* Cat to face and breathe the other direction just for good measure though.

Farron
[and one grumpy for being disturbed _^..^_ ]

Lose messIE! Browse Happy!

For some reason, I had not noticed the Browse Happy Campaign at WaSP

I am jumping on that band wagon by adding a button link to my sidebar here

and by running over and finding a spot on the classroom pages which release to our students tonight to add a larger, more *in your face* version. Maybe even the big, blinky one? haha

_^..^_ and I are trying to work to change the web, one student at a time.

Now if I'd just clean up this lil mess over here and get it moved to the spot where I am working on a more current, standards driven layout. One that looks better, too. lol

What a difference a year or so can make in the way you like to code, huh?

That's all for now!

Farron and that _^..^_

Tree Stumps, Crazy Women and Creative Ideas

A few of my buddies know that I have been fuming today. The president of our neighborhood association, in all his great, beer sodden [?] wisdom, decided to let an old crust of a neighbor have the job of trimming some overhanging branches on the drive between our homes and the farm.
The old coot went more than a wee bit overboard. Unfortunately he started right behind our place. Took down half a dern tree, that wasn't bothering anyone who lives right here.

He got a good start on a second tree with pontifications about "having full board approval" before I got my favorite board member [my better, calmer half] on the phone and email to confirm that no, this had never been approved by the board.

I went on a bit of a rant. I am sure they are now classifying me as a female dog and preparing rabies shots. Come on boys, I have tools to wack *branches* off too! Baddddd Farron actually called him a Cheap Whacker to his face! Naughty, Naughty! [smirk]

At least maybe now there will be more judicious trimming of trees up the row. A stray branch or two may need pruning. That is an ongoing thing, but possibly halves of trees will not be killed in the process leaving ugly broken stumps jutting in our faces and upsetting my delicate, artistic sensibilities. *grin*!

I calmed noticeably when the mail arrived. My copy of Jim Krause's "Creative Sparks" is here! Even at just a glance, this little madhouse of a book looks like it might be full of fun, crazy thoughts & ideas to help cure my creative doldrums. That summer slump and drying up of the more interesting and imaginative section of my little grey cells is probably what makes me grumpy and sends me out into the street to snap and bite at the neighbors.

Think Tony will let me coat his face in petroleum jelly and plaster strips to make a mask and unleash my creativity? That is one of the exercises I spotted in my new book.

Probably owe the old, untrained at tree trimming [but still getting PAID for it] neighbor an apology for my tone of voice, but I will not apologize for my intent. Hey! He's messing with my hummingbird habitat!

As *THE* _^..^_ would say, this is UNNNNNNNNNNNNacceptable and REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEdiculious. Ahhhh, I always feel better after I blog a rant. Even if no one is listening. haha

Farron
[who is hiding from rabies shots and dog catchers at the moment]

So Much for a Quiet, Spam-free Blog

I am pretty well hidden over here as this blog, which started a bit over a year ago as a test I was doing with some friends is not a heavily travelled corner of cyberspace. It's mostly just a place for me to stash things I would like to be able to find again and share a few smiles or grumbles with friends.

Wellllllll, the PITA comment spammers seem to have found me. I didn't even realize it for a bit as the most of the nasty litttle titles in the notifications didn't even make it to my mailbox thanks to my email spam blockers and filters.

I started to use Phil Ringnaula's suggestion from the forums about a fast and easy way to ban all IP's temporarily by simply entering a blank IP address via the MT IP Banning feature, but that made me almost as mad as having to delete comment spam. Why shouldn't I be able to allow comments if I want them and still be irritation/spam free? It's not like someone will get super SE ratings for attaching to this little corner.

I dug around for another minute in the forums to find a quick and easy fix. Did not want to invest large amounts of energy into it at this point as catartis.com will be migrating off of MT in the near future. It would have been gone already if I hadn't gotten a case of extreme & acute lazification over this summer break. I have a spot ready for it, but I need to kick my creative cells into gear and come up with new site design templates before I toddle off. I am just that way. lol

Found this quick fix at Neil's World thanks to a post in the MT forums:

One Idea

Just tested posting a comment on my previous entry and all seems to be working on that end. Now, let's see if it helps. If not, all IP's will be banned until I get off my [ahem] assets and get moved.

The _^..^_ is disgusted, and so am I. [grin & growl]

Farron